How to get a Healthier Life with the 5 x 5 Success Plan is a 5 part series which asks you to start thinking — and sampling from 5 lifestyle change areas. Part I about Good Mind, and Good Moves leads into Part II – Good Food. Part III and IV about Good Hydration, and Good Rest are must-reads. And Part V is pure pleasure, and bonus 🙂 – so follow The GOODista for more.
How to get a Healthier Life: The 5 x 5 Success Plan
Each of the 5 tips, take 5 minutes to do. It is not a diet, or some fad. This is a method to introduce some healthy changes by ‘thinking’, exercising, eating, drinking, and resting. The idea is to get you inspired. These are small changes for wellness and energy that help you every day.
You pick and mix what suits your life — and after some 25 days — you will feel the difference. This difference will make you want more. If you follow The GOODista, you will get updates and news to keep your New You going all the way.
That Health matters every day is no secret. As much as we understand that, helpful tips on how to actually get going do make a difference. The GOODista would encourage you to re-visit the previous posts:
Health Matters: 10 top tips how to balance life and time;- Healthy Living Secrets and Lies;
- How to get a Healthier Life with the 5 x 5 Success Plan, Part I
Healthier Life Part II: Good Food
How to get a Healthier Life with the 5 x 5 Success Plan, continues here with Part II about ‘Good Food’. In Part I, we covered 5 tips that take 5 minutes each in ‘Good Mind’ and ‘Good Moves’. In Part III, we talk about ‘Good Hydration’ and Part IV ‘Good Rest‘ – e.g. sleep and (less) stress is one not to miss. Part V is a Bonus with top tips on products that really make a difference to your essential ‘Me-time‘.
Good Food
- Take 5 minutes everyday to read about Nutrition, Health foods, SuperFoods, Cook books (take a look below at some of my favourite reads), and study the Healthy Food Pyramid. Learn about the difference between simple and complex carbohydrates. Learn why you need to eat from all food groups in a healthy balanced way. Reading for 5 minutes every day, gets you focused on what is ‘good for you’ and what is not. It makes you conscious about your choices when shopping, and in a restaurant. The goal is healthy choices that you feel works for you.
Go Green
Go green and be good to your body. The Body likes and needs good food, to give back the energy that you spend everyday. Think vegetables and fruit. 5 minutes menu planning will help you add vegetables as a base to all your dishes. Have a fruit with your breakfast, and for dessert. You want to increase the energy that your body needs. Instead of overloading it with processed foods, increase vegetable and fruit intake. Your body will give you back 10 fold, and you might even lose some weight.
Back to Basics Mindfully
- Go back to your roots, and bring back childhood foods. Eat real food, that is good for you. Processed combos that confuse the body and mind are not food. ‘Mama was right!’ We all come from different backgrounds. Research today shows that by going back to traditional, real basic foods – e.g. Mediterranean, Scandinavian, Middle Eastern, Latin, African, Indian, Asian, etc. our genes thank us. Our childhood foods are most genetically suited to our body types ( See below for the books: ‘Deep Nutrition’, by Dr. Shanahan, and ‘Inflammation Nation’, By Dr. Chilton). Healthy balanced foods don’t have to be complicated. Take 5 minutes to call your Mother, Father, or Relative. Catch up, and get those recipes from long ago. They are good for you!
- Eat mind fully. Appreciate the taste, the goodness, and let this take longer than 5 minutes ;). Turn off social media, and just eat in peace for at least 20 minutes. It takes that long before your body has registered that food has reached the stomach, and is satisfied. If you take more than 5 minutes, chances are that you will not go back for needless seconds, just because rushed through it. Portion control is another matter all together, as is calorie counting (which The GOODista does not believe in). Both matter little for now. That is for when you want to step it up. (Follow The GOODista and find out more :)) For now — simply enjoy getting healthy by eating mindfully for more than 5 minutes.
Cravings
Deprivation leads to stagnation. In other words, no-one is your judge here. You may feel the need to have something salty before dinner, or something sweet later? Once you get into a healthier food balance, and actually eat properly from each of the food groups, you will find that cravings will become less. Cravings are the body’s way of telling you something essential is missing. The brain translates vitamin deficiencies etc into visions of ‘must haves’, and then we get trapped into overloading. Take 5 minutes before you ‘Give in’ and think about why you ‘want’ something so badly. Have you had a bad day? Are you late back from work, and simply hungry? And, when you have decided what the answer is you instinctively know what it is you need. Sweet, Salt, Bitter, Sour…. Your healthier New You will help you reach for the healthier alternative, right?! 😉
Take a look at the recommended books, links and resources. Check out the other parts of the ‘How to Get a Healthier Life’ series. Feel free to Follow The GOODista for updates, news and special offers.
Did you enjoy this ‘Good Food’ post? Easy to do? Please share in the comment box below, which 5 minutes you did, and how it made you feel!
Related, Recommended Reading:
- Top Ten Healthiest Foods – Medical News Today
- Human Energy Requirements – Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)
- What is a Healthy Balanced Diet? – NHS, UK.
- 9 Reasons Never to Eat Processed Foods Again – Natural News
- 30 Foods That Will Make Your Life Super Healthy – be healthy today
- Go back to your roots and eat real food – FoodRenegade
- Mindful Eating – Dr. Susan Albers
- How to conquer cravings – Health.com
A plan to start right away!